My hope is to honor God with every brushstroke… to bring light to the world by expressing my Joy in The Light OF the World.

Lay it down

It’s quiet and cool this morning. Cloudy, but not raining yet. As I sit on my front porch reading, the yard has filled with birds. Doves, robins, killdeer, sparrows, chickadee, blackbirds, jays. We had lots of rain yesterday, so they’re all out hunting and finding plenty to eat this morning. Lots of busyness and activity, flitting and fighting, calling to each other.

It’s always interesting how human nature is like other species in nature… God provides a bountiful supply of what we need, but we pick and fight over it, chase each other away from it, and squawk extra loud when somebody wants what we have. Just like the birds this morning.

As I sit and watch the yard fill up, I think about how our lives do the same thing. We have all the space and time in the world, but, one by one, things come into our day or our lives… Stuff that requires our time or our attention. And, one by one, we handle whatever it is until we realize that we are inundated with this “stuff” and it’s out of control. Things or stuff or people or issues all come and need attention, but they never leave. Just like the people on reality television, we hoard things in our homes and then we can’t get through the living room. Our closets are stuffed with clothes and shoes we don’t need and won’t ever wear again. We can’t get the car in the garage for the other stuff in it!

And don’t we do the same with our emotional and spiritual lives? We keep all the hurt that has visited us locked up tight in our hearts until there’s no room for the good in our lives. We don’t let go of old “stuff” that’s strapped to us like a backpack full of boulders, and it weighs us down. It slows us down so that we can’t love anybody or anything. It makes us unwilling or unable to accept any good from anyone because “there’s no room in the inn.”

The Bible says in John 10:10 that Christ came so that we may “have life and have it more abundantly.” He didn’t come so that we may have stuff and have it more abundantly. Also in John 8:36, Jesus tells us that if he has set us free, then we are free indeed! If Christ came and set me free, then I can lay down all the hurt and pain I’ve been carrying around with me. His shoulders are bigger than mine, his back is stronger, and he is able. It’s time to set aside anything that hinders and run the race set before us.